1944-45 Really Scarce
Suspense Oldie Movie DVDs Digitally Mastered from Archival Prints
Charlie Chan's Detective Stories
CHANTHOLOGY
6 Rare Detective Oldie Movies Collection
6 DVDs Box Set
Starring: Sidney Toler as Charlie Chan
1. The Jade Mask 1945, 66 min.
Starring: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Edwin Luke
Eccentric scientist Harper lives in a spooky mansion with all the trimmings: hidden lab, secret panels, inscrutable butler, and greedy relatives with unusual talents. When Harper seems to be murdered, Charlie Chan (with the uninvited help of No. 4 son) tries to answer such questions as Where's the body? How can a dead man walk? And how can a secret murder be done in full view of detectives and witnesses?
2. The Scarlet Clue 1945, 65 min.
Starring: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Virginia Brissac
Charlie Chan investigates the theft of government radar papers (the laboratory is located in the same building as a radio station) with the help of Number Three Son Tommy and comic sidekick Birmingham Brown...
3. The Shanghai Cobra 1945, 64 min.
Starring: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Benson Fong
When three employees of a bank are found murdered with cobra venom, Charlie Chan connects the homicides to a case that he had worked on in Shanghai in 1937. Even though he arrested the alleged murderer, Charlie wouldn't be able to recognize him because at the time of his apprehension, his badly burned face and hands were swathed in bandages and he later escaped from the police. Although Chan believes that he is involved with a gang that is stealing valuable radium from the bank vault utilizing tunnels that connect to the area sewer system, his new identity remains a mystery. When a detective disguised as a bank guard is found dead in a tunnel by Birmingham, Charlie knows he is on the right track...
4. The Secret Service 1944, 63 min.
Starring: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Arthur Loft
A scientist working on an important new invention which will protect Allied shipping from U-boat torpedoes has been assigned Secret Service security protection. Amazingly, despite the fact that his laboratory and experiments are located on the upper floor of his Washington mansion, he decides to host a dinner party for friends on the first floor. Even though several of his guest are foreign nationals with shadowy pasts, he refuses to allow his bodyguards to attend because their presence might offend his guests. When he is killed by unknown means before he can join them, the resultant summary investigation includes Honolulu detective Charlie Chan and children Tommie and Iris, later joined by Birmingham Brown, the chauffeur of one of the guests. When a preliminary autopsy reveals the scientist was electrocuted, Charlie and his associates must decide which of the suspects and red herrings is the guilty party...
5. The Chinese Cat 1944, 66 min.
Starring: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Joan Woodbury
Thomas P. Manning, businessman and chess expert, mysteriously shot in a locked room, dies clutching some chess pieces. Police are baffled, and finally abandon the case. Six months later, victim's daughter Leah Manning, stung by a scurrilous book about the case, enlists the aid of Charlie Chan and Number 3 Son. Additional murders follow, leading to a climactic confrontation in a seemingly deserted "Fun House"...
6. Black Magic 1944, 67 min.
aka "Meeting at Midnight"
Starring: Sidney Toler, Mantan Moreland, Frances Chan
Because Charlie Chan plans to return to Honolulu, he no longer needs the services of Birmingham, who gets a job as butler for William and Justine Bonner, two apparently phony psychics, who regularly host occult activities in their home. When Charlie's pretty daughter Frances attends a seance out of curiosity, Mr. Bonner is shot, and she becomes an immediate suspect. Charlie postpones his trip home to help with the investigation, which is made problematic when no bullet can be found in the wound and a hypnotized Mrs. Bonner is compelled to commit suicide by jumping off the roof of a downtown building...
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